If all goes according to plan, Kerrie Babin said, the Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce will soon be back downtown.

Babin, the chamber’s president and CEO, has confirmed that TACC and its 21-member board of directors are close to signing a lease agreement for office space not far from where the chamber used to conduct business.

Babin declined to go on record identifying her future landlord at least until the agreement has been signed, which she said should be within the next two weeks.

She described the property owner as “an established businessman.”

The chamber caught a backlash of criticism in 2010 when, after more than 20 years downtown, it moved out of its Sovereign Bank-owned office space on Taunton Green and relocated to Route 44 in Raynham.

Babin said TACC’s board felt it had no other choice at the time.

The national economy was in the throes of a recession, and she said the TACC had become sole tenant after former economic development director Dick Shafer, as part of a consolidation strategy by the city, moved into the School Street building of the Office of Economic and Community Development.

“It was a large space, and the rent was pretty steep,” Babin, 33, said. “We only had a staff of three, and it just didn’t make sense.”

Since then, the chamber has been leasing space in the Wynn & Wynn PC office building at 90 New State Highway.

She said the chamber leadership was aware of criticism that they had somehow abandoned its namesake city and eventually began looking for office space in Taunton, either to lease or buy.

The new location fits three basic criteria, Babin said. It has ample parking, handicapped access and a conference room large enough to accomodate weekly meetings by SCORE — a volunteer advisory group of retired business people — as well as members of Massachusetts Small Business Development Center.

Babin said her lease with Wynn & Wynn expired at least two months ago resulting in the chamber becoming a tenant at will. She also says despite the occasional criticism, the fact remains that the Raynham space, with its spacious conference room, has been a “beautiful” location.

“I wish we could just pick it up and move it,” she said.

Babin said another important factor in deciding to return to downtown Taunton is the chamber’s newly established affiliation with Heart of Taunton, the non-profit that since 1988 has sponsored downtown concerts and the Christmas Lights On ceremony on Taunton Green.

The two became closely entwined, she said, after HOT leadership in 2012 eliminated the position of its sole employee, former longtime executive director Julie Sprague.

“The recession had really hit a lot of people, and the (HOT) board had to make a really tough decision,” Babin said.

Page 2 of 2 - Babin credits local attorney and chamber member John Paul Thomas for providing legal assistance in establishing a working agreement between the Heart of Taunton and the chamber of commerce.

“The Heart of Taunton is still a separate entity, but we assume all administrative responsibilities,” Babin said, including mail and website content.

She also says HOT’s long-standing facade program is again available.

The program, funded in large part by guaranteed annual donations of $4,000 from the owner of Taunton Depot shopping plaza and $10,000 from Silver City Galleria, in the past has provided up to $6,000 in matching funds for downtown businesses.

Babin said it might strike some as odd that the chamber has continued to rent the former HOT office in downtown’s Mello professional building.

But she explained that her board felt it important to maintain a presence, even if it was largely symbolic. She says the space on Taunton Green has been used mainly as storage.

Babin, whose only full-time co-worker is longtime staffer Lisa DeMelo, said she looks forward to being within walking distance of Teri Bernert’s Taunton Business Improvement District office on Trescott Street. The BID is a non-profit that depends on membership contributions of property owners to pay for maintenance and downtown beautification measures.

It has also become involved in purchasing and renovating older or abandoned properties for residential rentals and ownership, including the former Baron Furniture warehouse on Trescott Street that is now home to apartments, an art gallery and BID offices.

“I think it will have a really positive impact, and I think we’ll be able to work more closely together,” said Bernert.

At one time Bernert suggested the TACC consider moving into either her Trescott Street building or a Main Street storefront that is about to open as Cafe Milano, but she said they weren’t quite the right fit.

Bernert said she expects to collaborate with the chamber particularly in terms of marketing and social media.

Babin, who has headed up TACC since 2007, also credits Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr, with taking an interest in helping find a suitable spot downtown.

The TACC has roughly 500 members and serves Taunton, Raynham, Dighton and Berkley.

Babin said it’s somewhat ironic that the TACC was lambasted for leaving Taunton when the majority of chamber members have businesses up and down Route 44 in Raynham.

On the wall of her Raynham office is a photograph of Charles Volkmann, the man who had been chamber president prior to Babin’s now-retired predecessor Dianne Shearstone.